The festival,
a four-day series of
events from April 16-19, is
being held on the campus of Southern
University at New Orleans and will
spotlight the contributions made by
African American playwrights to the
world’s collective body of theatrical
literature. Among the events being
offered are a full day of seminars
and panel discussions related to the
dramatic works of African American
playwrights, a monologue competition
for students from New Orleans area
high schools and two performances
of the late August Wilson’s play, titled
“Fences.”
The highlight of the festival will be
a gala benefit dinner on the evening
of April 17, during which five distinguished
New Orleanians who have
contributed to the growth and legacy
of ABCT will be honored, along with
noted Hollywood actor Roger Guenveur
Smith who has been featured in a wide
range of New Orleans- and Louisianathemed
productions.
Those being honored at the gala
include New Orleans’ “Queen of Soul”
and Grammy Award-winning vocalist
Irma Thomas, whose life and career
were celebrated in an ABCT stage
COVER STORY
production,
titled “Simply
Irma” in 2015. She will
receive the theater company’s
Legacy Award.
The four Icon Award recipients are
former longtime Channel 4 Anchorwoman
Sally-Ann Roberts, former City
Councilmember At-large and ABCT actor
Oliver Thomas, award-winning actor/
storyteller Adella Gautier and Data News
Weekly publisher and editor Terry Jones.
“These are all people who have been
great supporters of ours. That’s why
we’ve chosen to honor them,” Anthony
said, noting that other ABCT friends and
contributors will be honored at future
festivals.
“I’m very interested in the state of
theater, present and future, especially
black theater,” Anthony said, explaining
his motivation for starting the festival.
“I’m interested in where we should take
the audience and how we should educate,
not only blacks but whites and all other
cultures, since they are also theater-goers,”
he added.
Operating out of SUNO for the past
two years since his former theater on
South Carrollton Avenue was converted
i n t o
a charter
school, Anthony
has built up a warm
rapport with his new hosts.
His long-term vision, however, is the
acquisition of a facility he can call his
own. He is currently engaged in fundraising
to purchase a property he has been
eyeing as a new, permanent home for the
Anthony Bean Community Theater and
Acting School.
Growing up in the predominantly
middle-class Creole 7th Ward of New
Orleans, Anthony got an early start on
the road to a theatrical performance and
teaching career as a 9th grader at Andrew
J. Bell High School. “It was there that I
found my niche; that I was a playwright
and a director,” Anthony stated.
Sensing his destiny, Anthony began
reading everything he could about acting
and the theatrical profession. His father
encouraged him further by clearing out
the back room of a store he opened in the
7th Ward in 1973 and giving it to Anthony
and his brother, Monroe “Jomo” Bean for
a small theater. The Ethiopian Theater, as
they named it, featured original material
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANTHONY BEAN
Irma Thomas and Anthony Bean
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